Modern business software frameworks (also referred to as business software architectures, business applications, etc.) and other software solutions include or are based on databases, database management systems, or other information retrieval technology. At the core of such services is the ability to reply quickly and accurately to received queries (e.g. a formal statement of information needs) or other request from a user, a consuming entity (e.g. a web service, another software solution or the like that requires access to data), a request for information, requirements to generate reports, etc. In general, a response or result set generated based on a query can be characterized as a report, which can include results of the query in electronic or other formats.
Many modern business software frameworks include one or more complex data models for organizing, accessing, and presenting data. In such architectures, it is common to respond to a request for a report by invoking one or more multidimensional models to generate the requested report. In conventional approaches, this is the default handling of a report request. As an example, the runtime of a business software framework can typically use an online analytical processing (OLAP) engine to calculate report results. However, in cases in which the reporting requirements do not include advanced multidimensional reporting capabilities, use of an OLAP engine or the like can substantially reduce the overall performance of the query response, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Examples of reduced performance can include, but are not limited to, out of memory errors, runtime errors, diminished speed in completing tasks, and the like.
In general, the complexity of a reporting request depends not only on the report definition, but also in a way how a user is using the report. The need to use a multidimensional model such as OLAP can therefore vary depending on the requirements of report execution associated with any given report request. Reporting engines are typically built and optimized for the maximal possible feature scope. Accordingly, in actual usage, it is typical that either the performance of reporting solutions is not optimal or the usable analytical functions are limited. For example, implementation of a typical OLAP engine (e.g. Netweaver Business Intelligence available from SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany) can incur a substantial runtime overhead for tasks that can include provisioning OLAP engine meta data, generation of surrogate identifiers (SID), a much deeper call stack (e.g. a stack data structure that stores information about the active subroutines necessary to implement the engine) that would be required without implementation of the OLAP engine, and the like.